Jenny Gilruth: SQA overhaul ‘will not cause disruption’

Sharma Sampatmal 

An overhaul of Scotland’s education institutions will not cause disruption for pupils or teachers, the Education Secretary has said.

Jenny Gilruth also said she is “absolutely” committed to reducing the poverty-related attainment gap.

The former transport minister was promoted to the education brief when First Minister Humza Yousaf formed his first Cabinet.

On Thursday, she visited the Royal High School in Edinburgh, where she used to work as a teacher.

She spoke to pupils at the school who are currently preparing for exams, which start on Monday.

As part of an overhaul of the education system, the exams body SQA and Education Scotland will be scrapped and replaced by the summer of 2024.

Gilruth told the PA news agency: “No, it will not cause disruption for pupils or for teachers.

“It’s fundamentally important that we work with our children and young people and our teaching profession to get reform right.

“Fundamentally, a reformed educational landscape has to work better for Scotland’s children and young people and has to better support our teaching profession.”

Gilruth also said she is “hopeful” recent strikes by teachers will not affect pupils’ performance in exams.

Discussing the poverty-related attainment gap, she said it is “absolutely” her target in the role of Education Secretary to reduce it.

She said: “We absolutely need to continue that relentless focus on closing the poverty-related attainment gap.

“I’m very mindful as well that the landscape of Scottish education has markedly changed since the aspiration to closing the gap was first announced, so we need to be cognisant of that too.”

Earlier this week, Mr Yousaf said Scotland will seek to rejoin two major international surveys – Trends in International Maths and Science, and Progress in International Reading Literacy.

Gilruth denied that Scotland was taken out of the tables to hide bad performance.

She said “we are now in a very different place” and rejoining the surveys will give greater detail on educational results.